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IMPORT PRESCRIPTION

The second type of prescription promoted ?€deal?€?leadership styles or
models. These were related to reform implementation and/or more
generic discussion of principalship. Models were normally imported
directly from the West (e.g., Feng, 2002; Gu & Meng, 2001; S. Wang,
2007) and translated verbatim into Chinese. The most common format
recounted a detailed introduction to a theory or model popular in
Western societies (sometimes current and sometimes quite outdated)
and a conclusion with sketchy suggestions of the conditions and
qualities needed for application in China (e.g., W.A. Guo, 2001; H.H.
Wei, 2006). They provided little or no evidence of relevance or
applicability and included high levels of rhetoric and idealism. Hence,
they appeared more motivational than pragmatically or intellectually
informative.

Western leadership theories were promoted as necessary for
improved principalship practice, and they covered a wide range of
topics (e.g., Feng, 2002; Gu & Meng, 2001). For example, some
promoted management as a ?€cientific exercise?€?(e.g., C.Z. Xu, 1999, T.
Wang, 2004) or suggested schools establish formal quality assurance
systems (such as ISO standards) as pathways to improvement (H.B.
Cheng, 2006).Others suggested principals become more people
oriented and avoid ?€echnical rationality?€?(C.L. Chen, 2005, J.M. Sun &
Xie, 2008), act as servants and moral models (T.X. Zhang & Zeng,
2006), build school culture (Fan & Wang, 2006; Yuan, 2002), and
promote appropriate values (Z.Y. Shi, 2007). Concepts such as
curriculum leadership (C.L. Chen, 2005; Lv, 2002), instructional
leadership (R.P. Chen, 2004; Peng, 2006; Y. Zhao, 2007), contingency
theory (Z.Q. Tang, 2001, 2006), shared leadership (X.P. Dong, 2006),
transformational and charismatic leadership (C.Q. Chen, 2002; G.S.
Chen, 2001; X.P. Dong, 2006; Peng, 2006; M.Z. Shi, 2007; X.P. Zhang,
2008), moral leadership (Zhong, 2007), distributed leadership, and
servant leadership (Feng, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005; C.S. Hu, 2005) were
all present in the literature. They were generally presented without
any explicit contextualisation and more closely resembled sterile lists
of things principals ?€hould do?€? In sum, this category of prescriptive
pieces largely ignored the question of the relevance and applicability
of Western theories to Chinese schools.

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